Assessment of Tree Species Composition and Diversity in Assisted Natural Regeneration Area of Bilaspur Forest, Chhattisgarh, India

The present study the tree species composition, structure and diversity have been assessed for Khondra Forest's Assisted Natural Regeneration (ANR) area of Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, India. In this forested site, Compartment 22, Compartment 26, Compartment 31, and Compartment 32 were considered for the. The vegetation inventory was conducted from October 2019 to February 2021. A total of 24 quadrats 31.62 m 31.62m (0.1ha size) were randomly established cover entire forest area and tree species density, frequency and diversity were enumerated. We identified a total 1861 individual tree based on dbh > 10 cm counting which belongs to 49 species and 24 family. The Fabaceae family had the most occurring species (7 species), followed by Anacardiaceae (4 species) and Rubiaceae (4 species). The number of tree species encountered vary from 107 to 158 populations, stem density from 340 to 1240 stem ha(1), and basal area from 0.0017m(2) to 19.91m(2) in the study. The diversity index of Shannon-Wiener, Margalef, and Simpson index were 3.892, 6.45, and 0.886 respectively. Tree species belonging to Dipterocarpus had the greatest Importance Value Index (61.93), followed by Phyllanthaceae (36.21) and Lamiaceae (36.20). The plant population in this forest growing in their natural setting found to be highly diverse and stable based on patterns in diversity indexes. The study sites were found densely vegetated with high level of species community structure, however intensive level of cattle ranching and human pressure for NTPF collections exposed some of the valuable species to poor abundance and degrading populations.